Metaverse A $13 Trillion Opportunity- Citi Group

The interest in the virtual world has gained momentum since the latter half of 2021. The non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sales also spiked following the announcement of various projects. Considering many variable factors, Citi, an investment banking company, has projected that the Metaverse market could grow between $8 trillion and $13 trillion by 2030. It added that Metaverse users could also reach five billion by that time.

Open Metaverse will be community governed

Banking firm Citi has published a 184-page in-depth report on the metaverse ecosystem and its use cases. The report mentioned that today Metaverse most popularly can be experienced via video games on a virtual reality (VR) headset. But as we move forward into Web3, the Open Metaverse will be community owned and governed.

Building a large ecosystem means accessing the virtual world via personal computers, game consoles, and smartphones. However, to achieve that feat market will require huge infrastructure investment. To support the ecosystem computational efficiency has to be increased by over 1,000 times compared to today’s levels.

Money will be different in virtual world

Interestingly, the report mentions that the Open Metaverse definition of money would be different from what counts as money in today’s real world. Different forms of crypto will dominate that world. However, digital currencies will coexist with fiat currencies, CBDS, and other stablecoins.

The report said that Metaverse use cases will broadly cover commerce, art, media, advertising, healthcare, and social collaboration. Meanwhile, gaming is still viewed as a key Metaverse use case for the next several years.

It added that the development of the Metaverse will attract continuous probing by global regulators and policymakers. There will be issues and discussions over anti-money laundering, use of DeFi, digital assets and property rights. It means that all the challenges faced during Web2 internet will be enlarged during the development of the virtual world. The challenges will include content moderation, free speech, and privacy.